Toy vehicle playsets have proven to be an extremely enduring and popular category of toys for a great many years. Not surprisingly, this long lasting and extensive popularity has given rise to a virtually endless variety of toy vehicle playsets. Thus, such playsets have been provided which use simple track structures and equally simple hand-rolled toy vehicles as well as more complex track structures utilizing toy vehicles which are powered or launched through the track playset. For example, a variety of toy vehicle playsets utilize a track having an elevated launching portion employing gravity and its effect upon the toy vehicle to provide a launching energy to traverse the track set. Other toy vehicle playsets have used spring-loaded or spring-powered launchers to provide the initial energy required to drive the toy vehicle through the track set. Still other toy vehicle playsets have utilized vehicles which themselves are powered using devices such as inertial drive motors, spring-driven wind-up motors, or electrical motors having battery or other electrical power sources. The variation has included a substantial divergence of the track structures themselves. The simpler track structures utilize a simple oval racetrack while others employ more complex apparatus such as inverting loop segments or jump and landing ramp segments which hurtle the toy vehicles through the air across an intervening gap.
Just as the track playsets have been subject to variation, the toy vehicles themselves have been similarly varied and diverse. Such toy vehicles are often realistic, bright colored and finely detailed. Others are less detailed, more fanciful and cartoon-like in character. Still other toy vehicles used in such playsets are configurable in alternative element arrangements to vary their appearance. One of the more interesting toy vehicle variations produced through the years employs so-called thermochromic material which forms paint or coating upon the toy vehicles and which provides a change in color in response to temperature changes. Such toy vehicles often referred to "color-change" toy vehicles have provided an interesting and amusing variation for toy designers to utilize in their endless task of providing amusing and entertaining as well as novel toy playsets.
Thus, practitioners continue to respond to the popularity of such toy vehicle playsets to improve the amusement, entertainment and novelty thereof.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,545,757 issued to Tepper sets forth a RACING TOY HAVING VEHICLE PROPELLING AND ARRESTING MEANS in which two side by side tracks support rollable vehicles each of which moves around the entire track as a result of force applied to it during its movement along a propulsion region. A vehicle driving member is located beneath and moves along each propulsion region in response to movement of a handle operated by a player. The driving member carries a means, for example a pawl, for engaging and moving a vehicle on the track propulsion region. The driving member also carries a means such as an abutment for arresting or slowing the movement of the vehicle which moves onto the track propulsion region.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,472,906 issued to Cook, et al. sets forth a MANUALLY ACTIVATED TOY VEHICLE LAUNCHER having an upper casing unit slidable in a rectilinear direction relative to a lower casing unit. Rubber feet on the lower unit frictionally engage the playing surface onto which the toy vehicle is launched. The vehicle is acted upon a ram having a gear rack in mesh with a relatively large circular gear. Two relatively small circular gears are in mesh with a gear rack on the lower casing unit. Manual actuation of the upper casing unit in one axial direction relative to the lower casing unit causes the ram to push the toy vehicle and launch it.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,423,871 issued to Mucaro sets forth a TOY VEHICLE GAME having a track, a toy vehicle and a launcher for launching the toy vehicle along the track. The track includes a start position at which the launcher is located and an end position located above the start position.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,108,437 issued to DeAnda, et al. sets forth a TOY VEHICLE STARTING AND LAUNCHING SET having a pair of parallel toy vehicle tracks and a pair of parallel toy vehicle launchers. A timer is provided and a pair of triggers operate the launchers in response to the time completing its timed interval.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,717,346 issued to Merino, et al. sets forth a TOY VEHICLE STARTING MECHANISM for use with self-powered miniature toy vehicles. The starting mechanism is operative for playsets having two vehicle paths and includes a sliding support frame having projecting switch abutments to engage activating switches of the toy vehicles.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,011,288 issued to Einfalt sets forth a TOY TRACK FOR VEHICLES having a multiply curved track formed on a play board and cooperating spring-powered wind-up toy vehicles.
While the foregoing described prior art devices have improved the art and in some instances enjoyed commercial success, there remains nonetheless a continuing need in the art for evermore improved, interesting and amusing toy vehicle playsets.